By Libya Herald reporters.
Benghazi, 15 May 2017:
The controversial commander Mahmoud Warfali has today been charged with murder and forced to resign from the Saiqa Special Forces.
A group of his men looked on as Warfali was photographed signing his resignation.
It is unclear if he has actually been detained but a senior army source confirmed to the Libya Herald that he had been charged with murder by the military prosecutor.
Warfali has been connected with the summary execution of at least five people, with recordings of the crimes widely circulated. After a man resembling him was seen in a March recording using a machine pistol to kill three kneeling terrorist suspects, the LNA said that there would be an investigation and vowed that any soldier guilty of such crimes would be brought to justice. Yet it was unclear that the military prosecutor had embarked upon any enquiry.
Certainly footage of what appeared to be the same individual shooting another kneeling suspect emerged a only week ago, suggesting that whatever investigation was under way had not deterred such summary executions.
What seems to have been final straw was the weekend murder of police commander captain Musa Younis Al-Majbri in the city’s Birkah district. Majbri who led Benghazi’s najdah emergency response unit, was shot dead after an argument with a group of men, some in uniform who were identified as Saiqa members.
It is reported that Saiqa commander Wanis Bukhamada had already been pressing Warfali to quit. Today that pressure turned into insistence. This paper has been told that had he not resigned, he would have been fired. It is however unclear if Warfali knew that he was about to be charged with murder when he signed his resignation.
He was quoted as saying that he was becoming a civilian again but would once more serve his country if he was needed. He was quitting, he said, because of the many accusations made against him
